Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver ended with demented Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) hailed by the press as a have-a-go hero and back behind the wheel of his cab. It was regarded as the perfect finale for a film that bleakly satirised the role of the American loner and the cult of celebrity. Except it now transpires that it might not have been the finale after all. Scorsese and De Niro are currently planning a sequel to their 1976 classic.

In an interview with the New York Post, the actor admitted that a further installment was being discussed. "I was talking with Martin Scorsese about doing what I guess you'd call a sequel to Taxi Driver, where [Bickle] is older," De Niro said.

The original film charted the downward spiral of a Vietnam veteran who becomes obsessed with the salvation of a child prostitute (played by Jodie Foster). It was later linked to the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, who had become similarly fixated on Foster.

Taxi Driver was written in a fevered burst by Paul Schrader, who would break off from typing to aim a gun at his head as he searched for inspiration. Schrader last collaborated with Scorsese on 1999's Bringing Out the Dead, and it is not known whether he will be involved in the sequel.

The success of Taxi Driver cemented Scorsese and De Niro's reputation as the key director-star pairing of American cinema. In all, they made eight films together, beginning with Mean Streets in 1973 and ending with 1995's Casino. Scorsese is currently Oscar-nominated as best director for The Aviator, while De Niro is enjoying a rare double success at the top of the US and UK box office, with Hide and Seek and Meet the Fockers respectively.

Assuming the sequel goes ahead, fans will presumably have to wait some years to see it. Scorsese is next scheduled to direct Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed, an American overhaul of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs about the rivalry between a Boston cop and an Irish-American gangster. De Niro is currently in pre-production on The Good Shepherd, an epic history of the CIA. The film will mark De Niro's second stint in the director's chair, after his 1993 film A Bronx Tale.